Sylvia Maria Kristel (28 September 1952 – 18 October 2012) was a Dutch actress who performed in over 50 films, including as the lead character in four of the seven Emmanuelle films.

Biography

In September 2006, Kristel's autobiography Nue (Nude) was published in France. It was translated into English as Undressing Emmanuelle: A Memoir, by Fourth Estate, 2 July 2007 (ISBN 978-0007256952), in which she told of a turbulent personal life blighted by addictions to drugs, alcohol, and her quest for a father figure, which resulted in some destructive relationships with older men. The book received some positive reviews.

Her first major relationship was with Belgian author Hugo Claus, more than two decades her senior, with whom she had her only child, a son, Arthur (born 1975). She left her husband for British actor Ian McShane, whom she had met on the set of the film The Fifth Musketeer (1979). They moved in together in Los Angeles where he had promised to help her launch her American career. However their five-year affair would lead to no significant career break for Kristel but a relationship she describes in her autobiography as "awful – he was witty and charming but we were too much alike." About two years into the relationship she began using cocaine. This proved her downfall, although at the time she thought of it as a
"supervitamin, a very fashionable substance, without danger, but expensive, far more exciting than drowning in alcohol – a fuel necessary to stay in the swing." She also says she was pregnant with McShane's child, but lost the child when she fell.

Interviewed in 2006 for the documentary Hunting Emmanuelle, she describes how, due to an expensive cocaine addiction, she made a number of poor decisions, including selling her interest in Private Lessons to her agent for $150,000; the film would gross more than $26 million domestically. Since McShane, she married twice, first to an American businessman which ended after five months, and then to film producer Phillippe Blot. She spent a decade with Belgian radio producer Fred De Vree, until his death.

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